Seven Wonders of the World

There have been a few versions of the "seven wonders of the world."  The oldest list, known as the "classic" seven wonders were located around the Mediterranean and the Middle East.  Of the classic wonders, only one, the Great Pyramid of Giza, still exists.

1.  Great Pyramid of Giza in El Giza, Egypt.
2.  Colossus of Rhodes, was located in Rhodes, Greece.
3.  Hanging Gardens of Babylon, in Babylon, Iraq.
4.  Lighthouse of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt.
5.  Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in present-day Turkey.
6.  Statue of Zeus in Olympia, Greece.
7.   Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, Turkey.   

Next month, we're off to Kuşadasi for a week and will visit Ephesus.  I'll get to see what's left of the Temple of Artemis and will be the only item on the classic list I'll have seen.

The Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages include:
1.  Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa in Alexandria, Egypt.
2.  Colosseum in Rome, Italy.   
3.  Great Wall of China, in China.
4.  Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.
5.  Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy.
6.  Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, in Nanjing, China.
7.  Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, UK.

So far I've managed to see four of seven from this list.  I missed out on going to Nanjing during my Shanghai trip due to rain.

In 1994, the American Society of Civil Engineers paid tribute to the what they thought were the greatest civil engineering achievements of the 20th century by releasing their list of Seven Wonders to the Modern World.

1.  Channel Tunnel, between the UK and France.

2.  CN Tower in Toronto, Canada.

3.  Empire State Building in New York City, USA.

4.  Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, USA.

5.  Itaipú Dam between Brazil and Paraguay.

6.  Delta and Zuiderzee Works in the Netherlands.

7.  Panama Canal in Panama.

From this list I've been to the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge.  Toronto's been on my list of places to visit for years but who knows when I'll get a chance to visit Canada.

In 2001, a New Seven Wonders of the World was released.  The Great Pyramid of Giza didn't make the list but was added later as an honorary mention.

1.  Great Wall of China.

2.  Petra in Jordan.

3.  Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

4.  Machu Picchu in Peru.

5.  Chichén Itzá in Mexico.

6.  Colosseum in Italy.

7.  Taj Mahal in India.  

From this list I've been to the Great Wall, Petra, Christ the Redeemer, and the Colosseum.  Back in 2007, Steven and I were getting our MBAs from Georgia State University.  We did a two-week study abroad programme in Argentina and Brazil.  One of my favourite memories is of us in a helicopter flying around Jesus's head in Rio.

Ephesus for sure will be the next place from all of these lists that I'll see.  Beyond that, who knows?  The Taj Mahal and the Great Pyramid are both on my bucket list.  Stonehenge would probably be the easiest to visit.

Eurocorps

My 2000th blog post.  I can't believe that I've been at this for over 13 years or that people still seem interested in my Czechland adventure.  Thank you to everyone who continues to follow along.

Eurocorps is a European army, of about 60.000 troops, that can be deployed on very short notice.  It was founded in 1992 by France and Germany and it went operational in 1995.  This month it celebrates its 30th anniversary.  Eurocorps' headquarters are in Strasbourg, France.
Eurocorps is at the service of the EU and NATO and in 2002, it was certified as one of NATO's nine High Readiness Land Headquarters.  Eurocorps considers requests for support from the UN and OSCE.  It can also be deployed at the request of the framework nations.

There are six framework nations - France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, and Poland.  

Any EU country can join with the unanimous approval of the framework countries.  There are also five associated nations - Austria, Greece, Türkiye, Italy, and Romania. 

Finland was an associated member from 2002 - 2006 and Canada was from 2003 - 2007.  Czech Republic isn't a member but I believe that they have participated is some military exercises with Eurocorps in the past.  I'm not aware of Czechland having any plans to join. 

Eurocorps has participated in peacekeeping missions in the Balkans as part of SFOR in Bosnia and Herzegovina and KFOR in Kosovo.  It was deployed to Afghanistan as part of the UN's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).  It's even been deployed to Africa as part of EU training missions in Mali and the Central African Republic.

Poland became the newest framework member this year in January.  From 2023-2025, a Polish general will take command of Eurocorps.  With all of the support Poland has given Ukraine during the Russian invasion, I'm sure that Russia isn't thrilled with Poland soon to lead Eurocorps.

What's interesting to me Austria and Türkiye being associate members.  Türkiye is a member of NATO but not the EU so until it actually becomes an EU member, if ever, then it can't be one of the framework nations.  Austria's constitution prohibits it form entering into military alliances.  So I guess that by being an associate member it can participate in Eurocorps without violating its constitution, in the same way that it is a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace programme without being a NATO member.

Here's a France24 video I found on YouTube from 2009 that talks about Eurocorps.

©France24

Czechs vs Santa Claus

Again, 24 December in Central Europe is Christmas.  In the USA, and the UK, the 24th is Christmas Eve and the 25th is Christmas Day.  In the UK, the 26th is Boxing Day which isn't a thing in the U.S.

In Czechland, and Germany, the 24th, the 25th and the 26th of December are public holidays.  Like all public holidays you hope that they don't fall on the weekend because then you lose the free day off.

In Germany, the 25th and 26th are Erster Weihnachtstag and Zweiter Weihnachtstag, respectively the First and Second Christmas Day.  The 26th is also Stephanstag (St. Stephen's Day).

In Czechland, the 24th is Štědrý den.  The 25th is první vánoční svátek and the 26th is druhý vánoční svátek, the First and Second Christmas Day with the 25th also called Boží hod vánoční (the Christmas Feast) and the 26th also being Svátek svatého Štěpána (St. Stephen's Day).

Today we started out with Oma's typical German breakfast.  This is coffee with fresh bread rolls, meats, cheeses, butter, home made jams, and hard-boiled eggs.

We went for a walk around town for a couple of hours and then just relaxed for the rest of the day.  There are always fairly tales on German TV and of course we had to watch Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel which is the German version of Popelka.  It's always on TV in what used to be East Germany.  It's not as popular in Western Germans.  Also for some reason, in the east, Cinderella is "Aschenbrödel" but in the west they say "Aschenputtel".

This afternoon Oma put out another Christmas feast.  

We had duck and goose, with potatoes and gravy, dumplings, red and green cabbage.  It was delicious!  

Dinner was way better with everyone here in Berlin than it was during last year's Covid Christmas where I joined them for dinner on Skype.

While we were celebrating Christmas last night with the Weihachtsmann it seems that the Czechs were fighting with Santa Claus.

On 24 December, NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defence Command) tracks Santa Claus' trip around the globe.  They've been doing this since 1955.

Řízení letového provozu ČŘ, Air Traffic Control of the Czech Republic, is responsible for the airspace above Czech territory.  They put out a video on Twitter that Supersonic Ježíček submitted his flight plan and was doing Mach 9 (11.113 km/hr or 6905 mph) through Czech airspace.

©ŘLP ČŘ

Remember that Santa doesn't bring the presents.  Ježíček does.  In the following video I found out on YouTube, the Czech military shoots Santa out of the sky and then tanks surround him.  At the end of the video there is a disclaimer that neither Santa or any reindeer were injured in the making of this video.  You'e got to love the dark Czech sense of humour.

©tvarmycz

The Czech police went even darker.  They put out a public service video to illustrate the dangers of driving while SMSing (texting).  In the video, Santa gets distracted while driving and has an accident.  The Czech police come to the rescue by taking over his delivery route.

©Policie ČR

Air Mail Stickers

Back in 2018, Steven and Michael took a trip to Canada and sent me three postcards from Québec.  I don't know why but for some reason Steven put Michael in charge of posting them.  Michael put the "air mail" sticker on each card but forgot to put an actual stamp on each postcard.  The Canadian post office must have felt sorry for him because I ended up receiving two of the three postcards in Brno even though they didn't have any stamps.  

Obviously, a stamp is always required when you mail a postcard.  The air mail sticker is optional.  When I was still travelling, pre-COVID, I would ask the post office clerk for a few extra air mail stickers.  Sometimes the post office had them and sometimes they didn't but when they did, no country's post office has ever not given me a few extra stickers.  

Just to have a laugh, I sent them a postcard this week that was chockablock with nothing but different air mail stickers from across the world.  Here's the card I sent prior to buying a stamp at the post office.  I'm sure that they'll get a chuckle out of it.

2019 Global Peace Index

The results of the 13th annual Global Peace Index are in. Europe maintained its position as the world's most peaceful region for the 13th year in a row.

Iceland and New Zealand kept the first two spots again.

1. Iceland
2. New Zealand
3. Portugal
4. Austria
5. Denmark
6. Canada
7. Singapore
8. Slovenia
9. Japan
10. Czech Republic

The USA came in at #128, out of 163 countries, behind South Africa but ahead of Saudi Arabia.  

Afghanistan and Syria swapped positions as the least peaceful countries.  The bottom five are:

159.  Iraq

160.  Yemen

161.  South Sudan

162.  Syria

163.  Afghanistan

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe was founded in 1949.  It is an international organisation that promotes democracy, protects human rights and is committed to the rule of law in Europe.  Its headquarters are in Strasbourg, France.

It's important to realise that the Council of Europe is not the same thing as the European Union.  Which can be confusing because the EU actually adopted the flag that the council created in 1955.  The council now puts an "e" on the flag to differentiate it from the EU.

The EU doesn't control the council as they are independent.  But no country has ever joined the EU without first being a member of the council.

The Council of Europe can't make binding laws but it can enforce certain agreements made by European states.  It runs the European Court of Human Rights.

The official languages are English and French.  Certain bodies also use German, Italian, and Russian.

Ten countries formed the Council of Europe in 1949 and today there are 47 member countries.  Basically every country in Europe except for Belarus, due to concerns over human rights and the use of the death penalty), Kazakhstan, due to human rights concerns, Kosovo, due to limited recognition, and the Vatican, for being a theocracy.

The "eastern block" countries didn't start joining until after the fall of communism.  Hungary was the first to join in 1990, followed by Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1991, Bulgaria in in 1992 and Romania in 1993.

Czechoslovakia was replaced by Czech Republic and Slovakia following the Velvet Divorce.  East Germany never joined because the the former territory basically joined following the reunification of Germany in 1990.  Yugoslavia wasn't ever a member.  Following the breakup, Slovenia became the first ex-Yugoslav country to join in 1993.  The Soviet Union was never a member either.  The first former Soviet republics to join were Estonia and Lithuania in 1993.  Other former republics joined later on and Russia joined in 1996.    

Montenegro was the most recent country to join back in 2007.

The Vatican does have observer status.  As does Israel, the USA, Canada, Japan, and Mexico.  The council of Europe has observer status with the United Nations.

The death penalty is abolished in member countries.  There's criticism of the USA and Japan each having observer status since the death penalty is still in practice.

Again, since the Council of Europe is not the same thing as the EU, Brexit doesn't apply.  While the UK is leaving the EU it will remain in the Council of Europe.

Here's a video I found out on YouTube that explains more about the Council of Europe

©Council of Europe

2018 Global Peace Index

The 2018 Global Peace Index was just released.  Czechland continues to be one of the most peaceful countries to live it.
Even though it slipped a few spots from last year, Czech Republic is the tenth most peaceful country in the world.  The sixth most peaceful in Europe.

Europe continues to be the world's most peaceful region as it has every year this index has been released.  The USA dropped seven spots to place 128th (out of 163 countries).

For the sixth year in a row, Syria is the world's least peaceful country.  Followed by Afghanistan, South Sudan, Iraq, and Somalia.

The Top 10 countries are:
1.  Iceland
2.  New Zealand
3.  Portugal
4.  Austria
5.  Denmark
6.  Canada
7.  Singapore
8.  Slovenia
9.  Japan
10. Czech Republic

No More Registered Traveller

Two years ago I became a registered traveller for the UK and it has been awesome.  Year one cost me £70 ($92) but last year's renewal was on £50 ($62).  It's so worth it to be able to no longer fill out landing cards and to be able to us the ePassport gates.  No more filling up my passport with UK entry stamps.  Yeah!

As of yesterday I won't need to renew my registered traveller status anymore.  Now all Americans get to use the ePassport gates.  The gates have also been opened to travellers from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea.  So much for being in an exclusive club but at least I'll now save £50 a year.

As I understand it, if and when Brexit happens, EU citizens will still be able to use the gates.

Here's short video I found out on YouTube about how to use the gates.

©UK Home Office

2017 Global Peace Index

The 2017 Global Peace Index was released the other day.  Once again, Czechland remains one of the most peaceful countries to live in.  It maintained it's 6th place standing it earned last year.

Europe remains the safest region in the world with 15 of the top 20 spots.

Once again, Iceland came out on top.

Last year the USA placed 103rd.  This year it fell to 114th.

For the fifth year in a row, Syria is the world's least peaceful country, followed by South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia.

The top 10 countries are:
1.  Iceland
2.  New Zealand
3.  Portugal
4.  Austria
5.  Denmark
6.  Czech Republic
7.  Slovenia
8.  Canada
9.  Switzerland
10.  Ireland

Off to the Arctic Circle

I'm off to the Arctic Circle this weekend.  Specifically, I'm on the way to Tromsø, Norway.

The Arctic Circle is about 16,000 km (9,900 miles).  About 4% of the Earth's surface lies north of the Circle.  The Circle crosses Norway, Sweden, Finland, Greenland (Denmark), Iceland, Russia, Canada, and the USA.  Due to the severe cold, only around four million people live there.

The Arctic Circle isn't fixed.  The latitude depends on the axial tilt of the planet.  The Circle is drifting north about 15 metres (49 feet) per year.

At this time of year there will be very little daylight, maybe only five or six hours per day.  The reason for going this weekend is to try to see the Northern Lights.  Fingers crossed for good weather.

My First Bonfire Night

Tonight was my first Bonfire Night.  It's also known as Guy Fawkes Night and it is celebrated every 5th of November.

Quick history lesson...Catholics were persecuted under Elizabeth I's rule for 45 years.  Many had hoped that when Protestant King James I ascended the British throne that they would be free to practice their religion.

When that didn't happen, in 1605, a group of Catholic conspirators planned to assassinate the King and blow up the house of Parliament.


The assassination attempt failed and Guy Fawkes, one of the conspirators of the Gun Powder Plot, was executed with his co-conspirators.  So every 5th of November, there's a celebration to commemorate the failed attempt.

Remember, remember!

The fifth of November,

The Gunpowder treason and plot;

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot!

Many communities across the United Kingdom have fireworks and a bonfire where an effigy of Guy Fawkes is burned.  In Northern Ireland, bonfires aren't held in Catholic neighbourhoods; just the Protestant ones.

The celebration was exported to many British colonies.  In New England, it pretty much ended with the American Revolution.  It is still celebrated in New Zealand, South Africa, and parts of Canada.

We decided to drive out in search of Auckland fireworks but didn't have a lot of success.  We ended up at the beach by Devenport and watched people light fireworks.  We loaded a German immigrant a lighter for his daughter's sparklers and she gave each of us a sparkler.  It was very sweet.

Here's a video I found on YouTube that talks about Guy Fawkes Night.

©Anglophenia

Midnight Sun

We're in Helsinki this weekend for Eiko and Tommi's wedding tomorrow.  It feels like we were just at Liz and Jame's wedding and now it's time for Eiko to walk down the aisle.

One interesting thing going on, besides this also being Helsinki's Pride weekend, is the midnight sun.  Also called "white nights", this is when sunsets are late, sunrises are early, and it never really gets completely dark.  While the sun sets for a while, light can be seen on the horizon.

Around the summer solstice the sun is visible for 24 hours but this is way up north closer at the Artic Circle.  Most of Scandinavia experiences these white nights, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden, plus Greenland, Russia, Alaska, and parts of Canada.

This photo was taken at 11 PM and as you can see it is still very much light outside.  The night sky is defiantly more blue than black.

Our hotel has blackout curtains so I don't think it will be a problem getting a solid night's sleep before all of the festivities begin tomorrow.

2016 Global Peace Index

The results of the 2016 Global Peace Index are in.  Despite last year's terror attacks in Paris and Brussels, and instability in Turkey, Europe remains the world's most peaceful region.  European countries make up 14 of the the world's top 20 peaceful countries.

For the third year in a row Iceland is the most peaceful country.

Last year, Czechland cracked the top 10.  This year it moves up four spots to #6.  The USA fell out of the top 100 to come in at #103.

Syria is the least peaceful country followed by, South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia.

Here are the top 20 countries.

1. Iceland
2. Denmark
3. Austria
4. New Zealand
5. Portugal
6. Czech Republic
7. Switzerland
8. Canada
9. Japan
10. Slovenia
11. Finland
12. Ireland
13. Bhutan
14. Sweden
15. Australia
16. Germany
17. Norway
18. Belgium
19. Hungary
20. Singapore

2015 World Hockey Championships

Czech Republic hosted the 2015 World Hockey Championships over the past two weeks.  Ice hockey is a very big deal over here.

The championships were co-hosted by Prague and Ostrava.  Matches in Prague were at the O2 Arena and in Ostrava they were held at the ČEZ Aréna.

Canada took the gold with a 6-1 victory over Russia who took the silver.  The best part for me was that the USA beat Czechland 3-0 for the bronze.  It's going to fun at work tomorrow reminding folks that the Czechs lost the bronze to the Americans.

As a consolation prize, Czech hockey superstar Jaromír Jágr did earn Most Valuable Player.

UK Decimalization

On February 15, 1971, the United Kingdom went through a process of decimalization of its currency.  Before Decimal Day, the money was divided in to pounds (£), schillings (s. or /-) and pennies (d.).




There used to be 20 shillings per pound.  And there were 12 pennies per shilling.  So, a pound was actually made up of 240 pennies while a penny was made up of two halfpennies or four farthings (a quarter penny).  

2 farthings = 1 halfpenny

2 halfpence = 1 penny (1d)

3 pence = 1 thruppence (3d)

6 pence = 1 sixpence (6d) Called a "tanner".

12 pence = 1 shilling (1s) Called a "bob".

2 shillings = 1 florin (2s) called a "two bob bit".

2 shillings and 6 pence = 1 half crown (2s 6d)

5 shillings = 1 Crown (5s) 

In shops, prices were given as pounds/shillings/pence.  If you saw "2/4d" then it cost 2 shillings, four pence.  If you paid 1 pound then you received 17 shillings and 8 pence back in change.  How on earth did the UK ever have an empire?  This system would completely do my head in.  

I guess if this was all you knew then it made perfect sense.  However, with the age of computers it became very difficult to deal with monetary calculations.  I believe that this was the main driver for switching to decimal.  Here's an old UK public service spot that I found out on YouTube.  

After moving to decimalization, the pound was made up of 100 pence (p).  Now when someone tells me that something costs 50p (pee) then I know exactly how much that is.  Although, at least now I can better understand the monetary situation in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Current UK coins

Many people I've talked have told me that by moving to decimal just caused everything to become more expensive.  I've heard the same thing in Slovakia.  Apparently when the Slovaks adopted the Euro, shops rounded up the prices in Euros so that things became more expensive then they had been in Slovak Crowns.  Unfortunately, salaries didn't get rounded up to match.

EDIT:  Ireland decimalized  its currency, the Irish Pound, on the same day that the UK did.

Update:  The UK have issued new £1 coins and are updating the banknotes.

Update 2025:  Here's an interesting, short video on why former UK colonies adopted the dollar and not the pound.

©History Matters

DVD Regions

Watching DVDs is a great way to practice a foreign language.  For this, DVDs over here are better than the DVDs back home.  For example, an American DVD will be in English.  It may or may not offer the movie dubbed in to Spanish.  It will probably have subtitles available in Spanish and maybe in French.  Whereas I recently purchased a DVD over here and the movie was in English but had dubbing available in Czech, Slovak, and German.  The subtitles available are in Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, French, German, Spanish and Italian.  You can always find discount DVDs here for only 50 Kč ($2.50). 

All DVDs are region coded so that you can't just play them everywhere.  Movie studios like to use region coding to control movie releases.  What may be a summer blockbuster in the USA may not get released in Europe until December.  In this case, the studios don't want anyone to be able to simply watch a foreign DVD when the film hasn't been released locally yet.  The world is broken down in to six regions.

Region 1 is the USA, Canada, Bermuda, and U.S. territories.
Region 2 is for Europe (except Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine), Egypt, Middle East, Japan, South Africa, Greenland, and French territories.
Region 3 is Southeast Asia, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
Region 4 is Brazil, South America, Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Australia, and  New Zealand.
Region 5 is India, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, North Korea, Central Asia, South Asia, Pakistan and most of Africa.
Region 6 is China.

DVDs may be set up for multi-region play.  For example, the Baltics use both region 2 and region 5 formats.  Some DVDs are set up for every region.  You have to carefully look at the DVD label to see which region it's for.

The reason that the DVD region matters is because DVD players are configured to only work for specific regions.  I would send my nephew some Krteček DVDs but the problem is that they won't work in my sister's DVD player.

Lots of people only watch DVDs on their laptops.  Many laptop DVD drives will only let you switch between regions for a fixed number of times, usually five times, and then they become permanently locked.  Luckily my Czech laptop has a multi-region player so I can watch my European DVDs as well as the few hundred American DVDs I brought with me when I moved here.  While I was back in Arizona last year, I managed to find a little portable multi-region travel DVD player for only $50 (€40).  It too can play all of my DVDs.  I just have to use a European adapter so that I can plug it in to the wall over here.

2012 Election Results

So two things happened today.  The first was that I woke up to find out that President Obama won the election in the USA.  This was my first presidential election experience as an expat.  I honestly feel that if you don't vote then you have to shut the f#@k up for the next four years.  So I made sure to get my absentee ballot in.

I've got to say that it was kind of nice to just wake up and see the results on CNN International.  None of the normal up, to the wee hours of the morning, watching the election analysis.  Just go to sleep and wake up to the news.  Very nice.

It was funny at work today with many people coming up to me asking if I won the election.  Yes, my vote is the one that put us over.  Living overseas does open up your eyes to the world outside of the USA.  You get an appreciation for a different view of things.  Not better, not worse, just different.  But this time, I have to laugh at some people.  I've read and seen some news clips of a few individuals whose candidate didn't win the election and how they will leave the USA.  Of course, it is only a few nut jobs; not all Republicans.  They plan to leave the USA because President Obama is turning the country socialist.

So, people who are upset about national healthcare want to move to Europe or Canada.  Places that both have national healthcare.  They want a more conservative government.  Well Canada's conservatives tend to be more liberal than American liberals.

These same people who are up in arms about immigration just want to pick up and move to Europe.  I'm not sure why these people think that Europe will welcome them with open arms.  Schengen rules only allow for Americans to stay up to 90 days every six months.  Besides that, most Americans can't speak anything other than English which makes it pretty difficult to just pick up and start a new life over here.  

I've even heard where people say they will go to New Zealand where they can be free - until they realize that New Zealand will not let them bring their guns.

What about me?  I live overseas.  Well, yes I do.  But I came over here because of my job.  It's not that I was fleeing the country.

So enough about the election.  One, that's results I am totally happy with by the way.  There were two things that happened today.  The second thing was that apparently I'm everywhere. 

Costco

Costco is the the 5th largest retailer in the USA and the 7th largest in the world.  It was founded in 1983 in Kirkland, Washington.

There are now Costco locations in the USA, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

Costco sells products in bulk and a low prices.  The retail markup is never more than 15%.  You can definitely get some great deals at Costco but I could never get out of there without spending a minimum of $100.

The $1.50 hot dogs are so good.

The thing about Costco is that if you see something you want then you need to buy it then because if you want to come back for it later you will find that it has sold out.

You have to be a member to shop here.  An individual, one-year membership is $55.

One thing that I miss about living in Europe is not having Costco.  Of course, living in Czech Republic, buying in bulk really wouldn't work here.  It's not like most people have room for 20-roll packages of paper towels.

I've dropped some money in Costco while I've been back.  Lots of clothes, plus bulk purchases of staples such as deodorant, cold medicine, and razor blades.  And to my colleagues at work - Yes, I'm bringing back some jelly beans.

Here's a really interesting video I found out on YouTube about The Costco Craze.

©CNBC

Arizona

Arizona is in the southwest part of the USA.  Its borders make it the 6th largest state in the union.  Just a little smaller than Italy.  With 6.48 million people it has the country's 16th largest population.  It is also the most populated landlocked state.

Phoenix is the capital and largest city.  The Phoenix metro area has 4.2 million people.  In the winter, the population increases as many senior citizens, called "snowbirds", arrive from the northeast, and Canada, to enjoy the mild winters.

Arizona just celebrated its centennial.  It became our 48th state on February 14, 1912.  The last of the continental states.  Prior to the Mexican-American War it had been a part of Mexico.

Arizona is hot!!  The desert can be absolutely beautiful.  Especially at sunset, but still hot.  In July, it can get to 106 ºF (41 ºC).  Sometimes even hotter.  The winters aren't so bad, normally around 50 ºF (10 ºC).  Well except in the high desert where they get snow and 17 ºF (-8 ºC) is not unheard of.  You've got to love cactus and snow.

During WWII, many Japanese-Americans were put in internment camps.  Fearing a Japanese invasion of the west coast, Americans citizens of Japanese ancestry were moved to these camps.  What's interesting is that Japanese-Americans in Hawaii were never put in camps.  And no German-Americans or Italian-Americans were ever put in to camps.  Not a real proud moment in American history.

Arizona is home to several Indian reservations.  over 85,000 people speak Navajo and more than 10,000 speak Apache.

The most famous tourist attraction in the state is the Grand Canyon.  I've never seen it and I won't have time this trip.  However, next time, for sure.